N3UMW - thank you!
That W2PM mini diamond looks like a natural candidate for the W6LVP experimenter kit/preamp.
However, taking a look at that project got me looking into beam-shaping with resistance for my loop on ground.
I wasn't very successful (too much loss and not enough shaping to make it worth it), BUT what it did do is make me notice something about the low frequency end of my log below about 7 mhz:
Normally at 160m / 80m I'm running with a very high swr - anywhere from 60:1 on 160, and 26:1 on 80 with my 14-foot per side square and 9:1 transformer. But of course it works ok for rx-only, normally needing the preamp in my transceiver to be on. This is measured via EZnec, and confirmed by being infinity on the antenna analyzer.
To make a long story short, I placed anywhere from 33 ohms to 75 ohms resistive load at the corner directly opposite the feedpoint. HOLY COW - I'm now skirting a 10:1 or so at the low end with some real resistance. Makes sense - the loop is truly still very small at the low end of the range and the addition of some real resistance certainly helps, even if just by being lossy a tad. And with only a very low resistance value, it didn't change my pattern or loss too much.
But what does this mean? While "additional swr loss" in a short run of decent cabling at a low frequency of 1.8 mhz may seem insignificant, a 60:1 reduction down to 10:1 *may* help from a "system" standpoint of cable loss at these low freqs. Perhaps on the radio I use a tuner with on 160, I may need less inductance, which is always good.
As soon as my holiday stuff is over, I'll raid the junkbox for a non-inductive 50 ohm resistor an pop it in the corner opposite the feedpoint and see what happens in the real world.
I got a feeling you pointed me to "putting the icing on the cake, er, LOG" ! Thanks man!
